Jakarta Index Opens Higher, Rupiah Stronger

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Jakarta composite index (JCI)opened higher on Friday on positive regional sentiment.

The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) rose 15.58 points or 0.2 percent to 5,451.77 points with index of 45 most liquid stock up 0.42 percent to 952.79 points.

Chief researcher of  NH Korindo Securities Indonesia Reza Priyambada said  the majority markets  in Asia recorded gain giving positive sentiment to BEI on Friday after a slump on Thursday.

"There is less pressure expected especially by foreign investors with favorable condition in global market that JCI would continue to be on the rise ," Reza said.

He said strong positive expectation of good performances of listed companies  and rupiah appreciation would sustain the domestic stock market.

The financial reports to be released soon of big  capitalization publicly traded companies especially banks are expected to be favorable , analyst from Samuel Sekuritas Akhmad Nurcahyadi said.

Regional markets such as Hang Seng  and Straits Times recorded an increase in index but Nikkei declined.

Meanwhile, rupiah in interbank transaction traded at the level of 12,923 per US dollar gaining from earlier level of 12,947 per dollar.

Reza said there was less fear that The Fed would raise its interest rate soon contributing to the rupiah gain.

Financial market players are still active  in doing transactions with risky currencies including rupiah as the US economic data had not shown improvement as expected, he said.

Chinese government pledge to cope with slowdown in its  manufacturing industry gave stronger market expectation  and push up rupiah.

Rangga Cipta, an economist from Samuel Sekuritas said almost all US economic data released on Thursday night fell below expectation. (WDY)